Anyone who has been through the struggle of being a 20-something will tell you that dating is hard. But any queer person who has been through the struggle of, well, simply being who they are, will tell you that dating as a queer person is even harder. Before we even get the chance of finding love, there is a mountain of things to figure out: whether or not you want to come out, having to accept yourself, and navigating out how to move and present yourself in a heteronormative world. Things aren’t as simple as choosing your best selfies for a dating app and hoping for the best.

It also doesn’t help that there aren’t many examples of queer dating in media. There simply aren’t any roses being handed out to queer people as they do in “The Bachelor,” nor are there any modelesque queer people in guilty pleasures like “Love Island.” While there is more hope in the realm of rom-coms, examples where queer love is front and center are few and far between.

READ: The 25 best Filipino rom-coms of the last 25 years

All things considered, Black Sheep’s new queer dating show “Sparks Camp” is a salve in our representation-hungry mediascape. The show premiered last May 24, and features 10 queer men in a “Bachelor”-style format show, all hoping to find a date. “Sparks Camp” stars Gabe Balita, Karl Bautista, Stanley Bawalan, Nick Deocampo, Alex De Ungria, Dan Galman, Bong Gonzales, Justin Macapallag, Nat Magbitang, and Aaron Maniego.

The show is hosted by LGBTQIA+ advocate and Miss Trans Global 2020 Mela Habijan, who serves as the group’s Mother Sparker. Each week, the contestants — campers, as they are called — play a game to determine which two of them will go on a date. At the end-of-day bonfire, secrets are revealed about each camper, which allows them to get to know each other as a group. Following that, the campers then select one person to give a spark to.

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